Yum! Nicely nutty and smooth. In fact it tastes like Jarlsberg! It had some nice eye formation but some cracks as well. I held it at 50 degrees for about 2 weeks for rind formation, then rubbed it with olive oil. It was about 4 weeks at 70 to 75 degrees, and smelled wonderful. Then 7 more weeks in the cave! I will vacuum half of it and return it to the cave for some more aging. Scroll down for the picture!Last time I tried Jarlsberg (about 1 year ago) it swelled up nicely with some eyes even though it was just a 2 # cheese. The make had been with a thermophillic blend from cheesemaking.com. This time with Flora Danica. The recipe suggested heating the milk to 98 degrees, and then scalding at up to 108 degrees, but I was apprehensive about cooking the culture, to I went a little lower. The make went pretty well with the exception of flocculation happening in 10 mins (still too fast - I need to cut back the rennet), and the pH being very slow to drop after rinsing and while in the press. I think the pH meter was working, but the rinse water pH must have been pretty high (our water usually measures about 7.5 when I use the pH meter). I will post pictures when the cheese is in the warm phase, to see if it swells!

Two things:Adding water - which if pure pretty much has a neutral pH of 7 - will raise the pH of the vat, and then because lactose was first removed with the whey, then diluted, subsequent pH lowering of the whey/water will be much smaller and much slower. I think you pretty much can only measure your pH before draining and washing, and then again only of the curd when drained and in the press. After all, even slight variations in the amount of whey removed and water added will have a relatively large effect on pH.

Second, large-eyed Proprianic cheeses typically perform best with a part-skim milk, as too much fat I gather makes the paste softer than is ideal to capture the gas bubbles produced.

Except for Baby Swiss I make all of my "Swiss" types with thermos, so I do believe that her recipe is correct. One of the differences between a Jarlsberg and an Emmental is the maximum cooking temperature. Jarlsberg only heats to 108F, which would start to kill off a lot of Mesos.

The pH drop will always be much slower when using thermos because the ripening temperature is well below their optimum. You will notice that many thermo recipes call for very little or even no ripening time. Again, that's because the ripening temperature does not encourage rapid growth or acid production. Flora Danica (or Aroma B) are also very slow acidifiers.

Thought I'd add comment regarding the addition of Thermo Cultures to these types of cheeses. Now, I am only going on a couple of things that I've read recently and my PDF's of the Acidity curves of my thermo culture MOT 092 Thermophilic by Sacco. The first is that at 102 the thermo is well and truely active at tthat temp and two, as you replace the whey with water you are removing their food source - Lactose - very quickly and when they die (as their supposed to) when the lactose is gone - they give up their enzymes to go to the work on the protiens and fats in the curd. So, you might be missing out on whatever complexity they might provide. . These enzymes work to break down the proteins and fats to produce the amino acids, esters and other flavour points. Not being a micro-biologist, the finer deatils I am yet still to learn but the more and more I dive into the making of cheese the more amazed I am of the hidden complexity behind the basically simple activity of heating, acidifying and coagulating milk.

CHeeseOn

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